Big League Stew

Exit Sandman: Mariano Rivera’s last big party at Yankee Stadium

The New York Yankees pulled out all of the stops for Mariano Rivera on Sunday, his final weekend home game at Yankee Stadium before retiring as season's end. The pageantry was awesome, the guest list was A-plus, and emotions ran their highest. Metallica performed. The Yankees retired Rivera's No. 42 and placed a plaque in Monument Park. Nearly every key person in Rivera's adult life came to enjoy the day with him.

The Yankees lost, falling 2-1 to the San Francisco Giants, but even if they had won with Andy Pettitte and Rivera on the mound, the most special part of the day was the most routine — one that fans at Yankee Stadium had seen so many times before.

One of the neatest details that modern baseball offers is a player's entrance music. For at-bats, for coming in from the bullpen, whatever. Assigning a song to a guy is fun for everyone, especially when it's appropriate. Metallica might not be associated with Rivera's native Panama (unless troops played some when they were trying to drive out Manuel Noriega), but the rhythms and even some of the lyrics (speaking metaphorically) of "Enter Sandman" in their own way perfectly describe what Rivera does and how he does it.